System, method, and apparatus for monitoring sporting apparatus and users thereof

ABSTRACT

A system may comprise one or more monitoring devices that may communicate with a mobile device or a wearable device worn by a user of a sporting apparatus. The system may enable motion data specific to motion of the sporting apparatus to be conveniently captured and transmitted, and displayed on the wearable device. The system may include functionality to permit disablement of the motion detecting, transmission, and/or displaying functions at times when such functions are not permitted to be used, and to record the date, time, and location when such functions have been disabled to permit verification thereof by a governing body or sporting organization. The system may further include a learning module enabling monitored motion of the object to be correlated to monitored motion of the user such that predictive motion of the sporting object based only on monitored motion of the user may be obtained and displayed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, and claims priority to, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/923,688, filed Mar. 16, 2018, which is adivisional of U.S. patent Ser. No. 14/694,568, filed Apr. 23, 2015, nowU.S. Pat. No. 9,950,237 issued on Apr. 24, 2018, both of which areentitled “System, Method, and Apparatus For Monitoring SportingApparatus and Users Thereof,” the entire contents of which are herebyincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Sports enthusiasts of all skill levels in all sports are constantlystriving to enhance their ability while progressing along The Journey toBetter® path to improvement. This is especially true in sports such asgolf, which is challenging to master, and challenging to maintain one'sskill level in, once mastered.

For this reason, sports enthusiasts have turned to technical innovationsin an effort to improve their game, including the use of monitoringdevices used to determine and display information specific to theenthusiast, such as a golfer's swing path. Golfers and golf clubequipment manufacturers have been increasingly relying upon sensors andmonitors to evaluate a golfer's swing. Sensors and monitors may trackconditions, such as club head speed, attack angle, launch angle, golfball spin rate and spin direction, and so on. And sellers of golf clubequipment, including outlets that specialize in golf club fitting,increasingly rely on such sensors and monitors to assist a prospectivepurchaser in selecting golf clubs that best match their particular golfswing characteristics.

One such monitoring device that is commercially available is the “SB2”sensor available from Swingbyte, LLC (previously Swingbyte, Inc.) ofChicago, Ill. Such sensors, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,696,482,incorporated in its entirety by reference herein, are typicallyremoveably attached to the shaft of a golf club, for example with aclamping mechanism, or fixed to the shaft, for example, with anadhesive. As is now known by virtue of co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/564,933, filed Dec. 9, 2014, assigned to theassignee of the present application, and incorporated in its entirety byreference herein, monitoring devices may also be placed within sportingapparatus, such as the head, shaft, and/or grip of a golf club.

Such monitoring devices, also termed “three-dimensional golf swinganalyzers,” work as an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), and typicallyinclude, for example, a three-axis accelerometer capable of producingand transmitting linear acceleration data, a three-axis gyroscopecapable of producing and transmitting angular velocity data, a firstmicroprocessor that receives data from the accelerometer and thegyroscope and processes the data, a first computer memory wherein themicroprocessor stores the processed data, and a radio transmitter fortransmitting the processed data from the first computer memory. MEMS(microelectromechanical systems) technology may be used for theaccelerometer and the gyroscope. The monitoring device is typicallypowered by a battery or other suitable power source. A housing may beused to hold the microprocessor, accelerometer, gyroscope computermemory, radio transmitter, and battery.

Such monitoring devices capture and analyze golf swing (or othersporting apparatus motion) data by attaching the monitoring device to agolf club either below the grip or on the cap, or by integrating thesensor into the shaft or head. After hitting a shot or swinging the golfclub (or other sporting apparatus) players and instructors can view aninteractive, three-dimensional animation of the swing, along with keymetrics, such as club head speed, path, plane, and various angles atimpact. It is sometimes preferred to affix such monitoring devices at aposition remote from the golf club head, due to the head's tendency tovibrate violently at the point of impact, potentially disrupting themonitoring device's attempts to measure the swing characteristics. Suchmonitoring devices may use a transmitter to send processed linear andangular movement data that defines a sporting apparatus swing, e.g., agolf club swing, to a receiver on a mobile device, such as a smartphone, tablet computer, or laptop computer. A computer applicationrunning on the mobile device may receive the processed data, process thedata further and display a graphical representation of the entire swingwith comprehensive statistics for every point of the swing. Theprocessed data may be stored and later used along with theoretical datato coach a golfer or other sporting apparatus user on his or her swing.

As used herein, the term “monitoring device” is intended to mean adevice that is configured to perform one of more of the followingfunctions: to transmit and/or produce motion data, such as linearacceleration data and/or angular velocity data, to receive and/orprocess one or more of such types of motion data, to store suchprocessed data, and/or to transmit the processed data, including withoutlimitation devices such as the SB2 monitoring device previouslydescribed.

As used herein, the term “wearable device” is intended to mean a devicenormally worn by a user, and including a display that is readilyviewable by the user in a hands-free manner, such as a watch or heads updisplay, including without limitation an Apple® Watch, and a GoogleGlass® device. In addition, a wearable device may include a golf glovehaving monitoring devices that can capture grip pressure on a golf cluband relay the information back to the user, such as that seen in theSensoGlove® product, available at http://shop.sensoglove.com. Thistechnology utilizes only the glove to gather and display theinformation, and does not require transmission of data, to a mobiledevice, for example.

As used herein, the term “mobile device” is intended to mean a devicenot normally worn by a user (or if worn, for example in a holster,having a display not readily viewable by the user while being worn),such as a smart phone, tablet computer, or laptop computer that isconfigurable to communicate with a wearable device and/or a monitoringdevice.

One of the practical problems facing sports enthusiasts, and golfers inparticular, is the need to disable or remove monitoring devices from thesporting apparatus with which they are associated. For example, the USGAdoes not permit use of monitoring devices “on course” in order for theround being played to count, either for USGA handicapping purposes, orfor competitive purposes, including both PGA Tour and amateurtournaments. It is thus necessary for any player having a monitoringdevice associated with his or her golf clubs to remove the device priorto playing a round of golf in order for that round not to bedisqualified under USGA rules. While it may be a minor inconvenience todisable or remove such a device if it is merely clipped to the golf clubshaft, or used on only one club, such removal or disabling becomes morecumbersome if all of the golfer's clubs (14 being the USGA limit) areequipped with such a device, or if the device is not removably attachedto the shaft, but is housed in the grip, for example, under a screw-offcap, or is housed in the club head, for example, according to theteachings of the aforementioned U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/564,933.

Moreover, current systems do not readily permit a golfer who ispracticing while playing a practice round, to readily view motion datain real time and after each shot, in order to adjust his or her swing,club, etc., without the need to fumble for a mobile device such as asmart phone to view a display of such data.

SUMMARY

The following presents a general summary of aspects of the disclosure inorder to provide a basic understanding thereof. This summary is not anextensive overview of the disclosure. It is not intended to identify keyor critical elements of the disclosure or to delineate the scope of thedisclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts of thedisclosure in a general form as a prelude to the more detaileddescription provided below.

The present disclosure describes, in one aspect, a system comprising: asporting apparatus comprising a monitoring device configured to transmitdata corresponding to a user operating the sporting apparatus; a mobiledevice configured to receive the data transmitted by the monitoringdevice and to process the data for further transmission as displayableinformation; and a wearable device associated with the user configuredto receive the data for further transmission from the mobile device anddisplay the displayable information.

According to another aspect, the present disclosure describes a systemcomprising: a first sporting apparatus comprising a first monitoringdevice configured to transmit first data corresponding to a useroperating the first sporting apparatus to impact a second sportingapparatus; a mobile device configured to receive the first datatransmitted by the first monitoring device and to process the first datafor further transmission as first displayable information; and awearable device associated with the user configured to receive the firstdata for further transmission from the mobile device and to display thefirst displayable information; the second sporting apparatus comprisinga second monitoring device configured to transmit second datacorresponding to being struck by the first sporting apparatus.

According to another aspect, the present disclosure describes a systemcomprising: a sporting apparatus comprising a monitoring deviceconfigured to transmit first data corresponding to motion of thesporting apparatus; a wearable device associated with a user of thesporting apparatus configured to receive the first data and to acquiresecond data corresponding to motion of the user; and a learning moduleconfigured to correlate the first data with the second data and generatethird data comprising an approximation of motion of the sportingapparatus.

In another aspect, the disclosure describes a sporting apparatuscomprising a monitoring device, the monitoring device comprising aprocessor and a memory coupled with the processor, the memory comprisingexecutable instructions that when executed by the processor cause theprocessor to effectuate operations comprising capturing motion datacorresponding to motion of the sporting apparatus, and a transmitterconfigured to transmit displayable data based on the motion data to awearable device intended to be worn by a user of the sporting apparatusfor display of the displayable data on the wearable device.

In yet another aspect, the disclosure describes a method comprisingacquiring first data indicative of motion of a sporting apparatus,acquiring second data indicative of motion of a user of the sportingapparatus, and correlating the first data to the second data to producethird data indicative of motion of the sporting apparatus based at leastin part or based solely on motion of the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not limitedin the accompanying figures, in which like reference numerals indicatesimilar elements throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a monitoring device of the prior artattached to a sporting apparatus, such as a golf club shaft.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a graphic display of a swing pathfor a sporting apparatus such as a golf club, such as may be achievedusing a monitoring device as shown in FIG. 1 and elsewhere herein.

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of systems and apparatus of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a method of correlating a user'shand or wrist speed motion to the speed of a sporting apparatus, such asa golf club head achieved by such motion.

FIG. 5 illustrates another system of the present disclosure involving alearning module to develop predictive or hypothetical motion data for asporting apparatus based on motion of a user of the sporting apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram representing a general purpose computer systemin which aspects of the methods and systems disclosed herein or portionsthereof may be incorporated.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart diagram describing a method for use by systems andapparatus of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As used herein, the term “monitoring device” is intended to mean adevice that is configured to perform one or more of the followingfunctions: to transmit and/or produce motion data, such as linearacceleration data and/or angular velocity data, to receive and/orprocess one or more of such types of motion data, to store suchprocessed data, and/or to transmit the processed data, including withoutlimitation devices such as the SB2 sensor previously described.

As used herein, the term “wearable device” is intended to mean a devicenormally worn by a user, and including a display that is readilyviewable by the user in a hands-free manner, such as a watch or heads updisplay, including without limitation an Apple® Watch, a Google Glass®device, etc.

As used herein, the term “mobile device” is intended to mean a devicenot normally worn by a user (or if worn, for example in a holster,having a display not readily viewable by the user while being worn),such as a smart phone (e.g., Apple IPhone®), tablet computer (e.g. AppleiPad®), or laptop computer (e.g. Apple Mac Book®) that is configurableto communicate with a wearable device and/or a monitoring device.

As used herein, the term “sporting apparatus” means an object intendedto be used in a game or sport by swinging at, capturing, hitting,throwing, or otherwise impacting another object (sports object) such asa ball, puck, punching bag, etc. including in both the actual andvirtual realms. A sporting apparatus includes, but is not limited tobaseball bats, softball bats, cricket bats, golf clubs, hockey sticks,tennis rackets, squash rackets, racquetball rackets, badminton rackets,or lacrosse sticks, a boxing glove, and further includes sports apparel,and devices such as video game controllers intended to mimic suchsporting apparatus. A “sporting apparatus” may impact or be associatedwith an impact with a device such as a sporting object, and thus mayalso, for example, include a shoe configured to kick a soccer ball orfootball, or apparel, such as a golf glove, body suit, or helmet, that auser might wear when causing an impact. A sporting apparatus may have animpact area, which is an area of the sporting apparatus that normallyimpacts another sporting apparatus or sports object when participatingin a sport. For example, an impact area may include some or all of agolf club head for golf, bat barrel for baseball, or the like. Anon-impact area may be an area of the sporting apparatus that is notnormally impacted by another sporting apparatus, such as a golf clubshaft, racket handle, bat handle, or the like. While the disclosurerefers, for convenience, primarily to golf clubs, golf club heads, andgolf-related equipment, it should be understood that this is for brevityonly, and that the teachings and disclosures herein are intended toapply to any sporting apparatus and any sports object, and not merelygolf clubs and golf balls.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a sporting apparatuscomprising a golf club shaft, generally 10, of the prior art, having agolf club head (not shown) affixed to a golf club shaft 10 and includinga golf club grip 12. Also illustrated in FIG. 1 is a monitoring device14, such as the Swingbyte SB2 sensor previously described, attached tothe golf club shaft 10 as is known, for example, with a clamp or strap16. Such monitoring devices 14 may be configured to transmitinformation, data, graphics, etc. to a remote device 18, such as acomputer, laptop, tablet, smart phone, etc., where it may be accessed,displayed, or monitored on a display 20.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is illustrated a graphic display,generally 200, for a golf club swing path, such as achieved using aSwingbyte SB2-type sensor clamped or adhered to a golf club shaft asillustrated in FIG. 1. Such graphic display 200 may be displayed on aremote device, such as a mobile device (e.g., a smart phone, a tabletcomputer, or a laptop computer), or on a remote device comprising adesktop device such as a computer terminal. Such graphic display 200 maybe achieved using components and software embedded in the monitoringdevice and/or the remote device, as described in U.S. Pat. No.8,696,482. While the example illustrated in FIG. 2 is specific to a golfclub swing, and may display displayable information such as club headspeed, plane angle, face angle at address, ball speed, attack angle,launch angle, azimuth, etc., in numeric and/or graphical terms, similartypes of information indicative of motion of any sporting apparatusand/or sports object impacted by any such sporting apparatus may besimilarly displayed, and are contemplated to be within the scope of thepresent disclosure and the term “displayable information” as usedherein.

In addition, information relating to a user of the sporting apparatusmay also be included in the term “displayable information” as usedherein. For example, the user's hand position, wrist rotation, torsoposition, address angle, shoulder rotation speed, head rotation, headposition, and/or other information pertaining to the user's operation ofthe sporting apparatus may be included in the term “displayableinformation.”

The monitoring device may comprise a transmitter configured to transmitdata specific to the swing path to the remote device for processing anddisplaying as the graphic display 200. As illustrated, the graphicdisplay 200 may display a virtual golf club 210 in one or more swingpositions, in this example, at the follow through position proximate theconclusion of a golf swing. As further illustrated, the graphic display200 may display a swing path as recorded, sensed, and/or transmitted bythe monitoring device. Such swing path as displayed may comprise apre-impact backswing path 220, and a pre-impact downswing path 230,prior to the point of impact with a golf ball 240. The graphic displaymay further display a hypothetical post impact golf ball path 250 and apost-impact swing path 260. The monitoring device(s) may be mounted tothe shaft of the golf club, in the grip, within the shaft, and/or withinthe golf club head. The monitoring device may be configured to determineand display data corresponding to the golf club at the point of impact,such as club head speed, azimuth, attack angle, etc.

An aspect of the disclosure is a system 305 illustrated in FIG. 3. Inthis aspect, a golf club, generally 300, comprising a golf club head 310connected via a hosel 315 to a shaft 320 having a grip 330 may beprovided with a monitoring device 340 in the head, substantially asdescribed herein or as described, as another example, in U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. US 2013/0267338 A1, incorporated in itsentirety by reference herein. In this aspect, the golf club 300 mayadditionally or alternatively comprise a monitoring device 350 that may,for example, be attached to the shaft 320, and exhibit substantially thesame functionality as the monitoring device 340, in terms of sensingmotion of the golf club 300 and processing, storing, and/or transmittingdata pertaining thereto. The monitoring devices, for example monitoringdevices 340, 350, may communicate with and/or be used in conjunctionwith a mobile device 370 such as a computer tablet, smart phone, laptopcomputer, etc., and/or be used in conjunction with one or more wearabledevices, for example, a first wearable device 380 and/or a secondwearable device 301. In this aspect, the monitoring device 340,monitoring device 350, related mobile device 370, first wearable device380, and second wearable device 301 may be configured to receive,process, transmit, and/or display only the best data available from themonitoring device 340 and/or monitoring device 350, for example, asdisclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/564,933.

As another example, the golf club 300 may have additional or alternativemonitoring devices, such as a monitoring device 325 within the shaft 320and/or a monitoring device 335 within the grip 330, to provide multipleopportunities to capture the most accurate readings from multiple partsof the swing. As illustrated, the plurality of monitoring devices 325,335, 340, 350 may be relatively evenly spaced along the golf club 300,for example, generally along the longitudinal axis or center line C/L ofthe sporting apparatus handle, shaft, hosel, etc. Other numbers ofmonitoring devices and spacing and monitoring device securingarrangements are of course contemplated herein. Of course, only onemonitoring device, 325, 335, 340, or 350 may be employed.

In one aspect, a monitoring device 335 may be placed within the grip 330or handle of the sporting apparatus. A commercially available example ofan electronic device placed in the grip of a golf club is exemplified bythe Game Golf™ shot tracking system, available from Active MindTechnology, Inc., which utilizes electronic components (referred to as“tags,”) under a plug in the end of each golf club grip that communicatewith a second electronic component (referred to as a “tracking device”)worn on the user's belt, in order to track each club used for each shoton each hole on a golf course. Such devices are, for example,illustrated and described in U.S. Publication No. US20120035003 A1,published Feb. 9, 2012 and incorporated in its entirety by referenceherein. Currently, however, the USGA does not permit golf clubs equippedwith such devices to be used when a player participates in competitiveplay. Thus, a player with a full set of golf clubs fitted with suchdevices must first remove them from each club prior to commencing play.As discussed herein, devices associated with receiving motion data maybe put in different modes based on a criteria. An exemplary use of thedisclosed subject matter may be to automatically put a threshold numberof monitoring devices associated with sporting apparatus that are inproximity to a location and/or each other in which such devices may notbe used under certain rules in an “off” mode based on criteria asdiscussed herein. The threshold requirement, proximity requirement, andthe other criteria may be set by a rules making body or an association,such as the USGA.

A preferred aspect of the present disclosure provides a system thatenables the player to not only remove or turn on or power off themonitoring devices, but to place the system with which they are beingused in “sleep” mode, to record the duration and time when in sleepmode, and/or record the location of the devices while in sleep mode, allof which may be recorded in a verifiable format, such as a date andtime-stamped electronic signature, so the player might verify with theUSGA or any other official or governing body that the monitoringdevices, though contained on, or within, or otherwise associated with,the club(s) were nonfunctional and not functioning during the time theplayer was participating in a USGA or other sanctioned event at whichsuch devices are not permitted for use. In this aspect, the “sleep” modemay be enabled by the mobile device, the wearable device(s), and/or themonitoring device(s), and may comprise software and functionalitysubstantially similar to that used for placing a cellular telephone in“airplane” mode, but with the added functionality of recording the timeand location during which the system was in sleep mode.

In some implementations, the “sleep” mode may only turn off the displayand transmission of data to the user, but still track the data fortransmitting over a network to an internet provider and/or a cableprovider, for example. This modified “sleep” mode is referred to hereinas a “local sleep” mode. In such an example, the “local sleep” mode maybe enabled by the mobile device 370 wearable device 380, or wearabledevice 301 such that the user is incapable of utilizing, accessing, orvisualizing the tracked information, and the system 305 may still recordthe time and location during which the system 305 is in “local sleep”mode, but the system 305 may transmit the data over the network. Assuch, the network provider and/or cable provider, such as a cableprovider broadcasting a golf tournament, can still utilize the datacreated and transmitted by the system 305, such as data 352, 397, 353,399, 396, 398, 394, 351, 355, and 357 that is transmitted or received byrespective sensors or other devices, for example. The data may bebroadcast along with a live broadcast, for example, to show a visualrepresentation of the user's swing, or to provide more accurate trackingof shot distances and trajectories, distances from hazards and/or pinlocations, golf ball location on the golf course, and other information.In this way, the “local sleep” mode may permit broadcasters to broadcastimages similar to “Shot Tracker” images that show the flight path of agolf ball, but with the advantage of showing visual depictions of swingplane and other data not currently available.

In a related aspect, technologies similar or identical to those used todetermine the flight path or position of a golf ball, such as “ShotTracker” or “Shot Link” may be employed to track, for example, the swingpath of a golf club in order to show the path of the backswing anddownswing for a shot/player of interest, and display the swing path on awearable device, a mobile device, and/or broadcast the same over anetwork, such as a cable provider broadcasting a golf tournament. Suchtechnologies, which rely, inter alia, on lasers, wireless communicationtechnologies, handheld devices, and related software, etc., may beemployed by focusing, for example, on the head of the golf club, ratherthan (or in addition to) the golf ball itself, before, during, and/orafter the swing. The swing path or track of the golf club head duringthe swing may thus be monitored, captured, displayed, and/or broadcast.In this aspect, such technologies may be employed from differentvantages, for example, from behind the golfer, facing the golfer, oreven above the golfer, for example using a drone-based system when on agolf course, or one that employs mounted cameras, sensor, lasers, etc.,for example in a hitting bay of a fitting studio. When different vantagepositions of the swing path are thus captured, the resulting data may beaggregated and displayed three dimensionally. Additionally oralternatively, two or more different vantages of the swing of a sportingapparatus may be captured and displayed to visualize, for example, aswing path from above, behind, in front of, beside, and/or facing theuser of the sporting apparatus in different frames of view. In theseaspects, it should be noted that it may be feasible to use such “ShotTracker” or “Shot Link”-type technologies either with or without amonitoring device associated with the golf club or other sportingapparatus.

As is further illustrated in FIG. 3, the system 305 of the presentdisclosure may also comprise a first wearable device generally 380,which may be, for example, a Google Glass® device, or an Apple® Watch orsimilar device, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,787,006,incorporated in its entirety by reference herein. The wearable device380 may comprise a band 382, such as a wristband, headband, ankle band,arm band, leg band, or other attachment device for securing the wearabledevice 380 to a user, for example about the wrist, head, ankle, arm, orleg, respectively.

The wearable device 380 may further comprise a portable electronicdevice 384 which may comprise a display 386. The display 386 may becapable of displaying outputs to a user and/or may comprise a touchscreen display capable of receiving touch inputs from a user. Theportable electronic device 384 may have a native function, for example,as a watch, or a portable media player, and thus may provide mediastorage and playback.

Additionally, one or both of the band 382 (or other attachment vehicle,such as a glove or item of apparel) and the portable electronic device384 may comprise one or more electrical components 388, 389,respectively, that may be coupled to other electrical components, eitherwithin the wearable device 380 or remote therefrom via wired or wirelessmeans. As an example, the electrical component(s) 388, 389 may compriseat least one of an accelerometer, an antenna, a GPS receiver, a wirelesscommunication transceiver, a haptic device, a printed circuit substrate,and/or a battery. As examples, the one or more antennas can be selectedfrom the group of: a short-range wireless antenna (e.g., Bluetooth®antenna), a near-field antenna, or a Global Positioning System (GPS)antenna. The printed circuit substrate can, for example, be a flexcircuit, rigid flex, or a Printed Circuit Board (PCB). The haptic devicecan be a vibrator, a piezo-electric device, or other device providing auser sensible condition. The battery can be rechargeable and can be usedto power the band 382, the portable electronic device 384, and possiblyalso to charge a battery within the portable electronic device 384.

As is further illustrated in FIG. 3, the system 305 of the presentdisclosure may also comprise a second wearable device generally 301,which may be, for example, a golf glove or another article of clothing,such as a hat or shirt. The second wearable device 301 may comprise oneor more monitoring devices, generally 395, capable of transmitting data399 to at least one of mobile device 370 or first wearable device 380.The second wearable device 301 may perform functions and includefeatures similar to those discussed with respect to the first wearabledevice 380 as described herein.

If the second wearable device 301 is a glove, data 399 may includeinformation pertaining to the user's hand position on the sportingapparatus 300, the user's hand rotation and/or position throughout aswing, and/or the user's grip strength on the sporting apparatus 300 allutilized by the mobile device 370 and/or the first wearable device 380in generating the displayable information 353.

If the second wearable device 301 is a hat, data 399 may includeinformation pertaining to the user's head position before, during, andafter the swing, or a rotation of the user's head and/or shouldersduring the swing, for example, all utilized by the mobile device 370and/or the first wearable device 380 in generating the displayableinformation 353.

As another example, if the second wearable device 301 is a shirt, data399 may include information pertaining to the user's torso positionbefore, during, and after a swing, and/or the speed of rotation of theuser's shoulders during a swing, all utilized by the mobile device 370and/or the first wearable device 380 in generating the displayableinformation 353.

It should be noted that although two wearable devices are illustrated inthe system 305, any number of wearable devices may be implemented in thesystem 305 depending on the requirements of the system 305. For example,the system 305 may include the first wearable device 380 as a watch, thesecond wearable device 301 as a glove, and an additional wearable deviceas a hat, where each of the wearable devices is capable of receiving,transmitting, storing, and/or displaying data, such as data 397, 352,399, 357, 351, 353 etc.

According to one aspect of the disclosure illustrated in FIG. 3, thesystem 305 may comprise a sporting apparatus 300 comprising one or moremonitoring devices 325, 335, 340, and/or 350 configured to transmit(and/or receive) data 351, 353, 355, and/or 357 corresponding to a useroperating the sporting apparatus 300, and a mobile device 370 configuredto receive (and/or transmit) the data 351, 353, 355, 357, 352, and 399transmitted by the monitoring device(s) and the wearable device(s) andto process such data for further transmission, for example, astransmitted data 352 to be displayed as displayable information 353, anda wearable device 380 associated with the user configured to receive thetransmitted data, for example 352, 355 for further transmission and/orto be displayed as displayable information 353 on a display 386associated with the wearable device 380. The displayable information 353may comprise information substantially as described with respect to FIG.2.

Both the mobile device 370 and the first wearable device 380 maycomprise displays and may be configured to display the same displayableinformation 353, although the mobile device 370 need not display thedisplayable information 353, particularly when such information isdisplayable on the first wearable device 380. The data 351, 353, 355,and/or 357 transmitted by the monitoring device(s) and/or the data forfurther transmission 352 and/or the displayable information 353 maycomprise at least one of velocity, acceleration, deceleration, attackangle, azimuth, impact, and swing path of the sporting apparatus 300.Such data may be displayed numerically and/or graphically.

According to another aspect, the system 305 may be configured such thatat least one of the monitoring device(s), 325, 335, 340, and/or 350 themobile device, 370, the first wearable device 380, and/or the secondwearable device 301 comprises an “on” (or active) mode and an “off” (orsleep) mode, the “off” (or sleep) mode comprising functionality fordisabling, blocking, jamming, and/or otherwise interrupting at least oneof: the monitoring device's(s') ability to transmit data correspondingto a user operating the sporting apparatus, the mobile device's(s')ability to receive data transmitted by the monitoring device(s) and/orthe wearable device(s), the mobile device's(s') ability to transmitdisplayable information to the wearable device(s), the wearable device's(s') ability to display the displayable information or transmit data 352and/or 399 to the mobile device(s) or other wearable device(s),displaying (by one or more devices) data associated with the sportingapparatus, processing (by one or more devices) data associated with thesporting apparatus, and/or communicating (by one or more devices) dataassociated with the sporting apparatus, among other things.

The monitoring device(s), 325, 335, 340, and/or 350 the mobile device370, the wearable device 380, and/or the second wearable device 301 mayautomatically receive (or provide instructions to other devices) toenter into “off” mode (or any sleep mode) based on criteria, such aslocation (e.g., GPS), type of sporting apparatus (e.g., bat, ball, golfclub—7 iron, wood, etc.), time, and/or date, among other things. In anexample, mobile device 370 may first check a calendar of sporting eventsoccurring at the location of the mobile device 370 (or communicativelyconnected wearable or monitoring devices) at a certain time and date.The mobile device 370 may enter into (or provide instructions to otherdevices to enter into) “off” mode (e.g., any sleep mode discussedherein), from “off” mode to “active” mode, or the like. The calendar maybe locally stored on mobile device 370 or stored remotely, such as on aserver associated with the USGA or another sports organization. Inanother example, where there is a system of mobile device 370,monitoring device 350, and/or wearable device 380, one or more of thedevices may be selectively put in an “on” or “off” mode (e.g., sleepmode) based on criteria as discussed herein. Therefore, in this example,mobile device 370 may be left in an active state, while monitoringdevice 350 and wearable device 380 are in an “off” mode.

In yet another aspect, at least one of the monitoring device(s), themobile device, and/or the wearable device(s) of the system 305 maycomprises a tracking module configured to record a time period in whichat least one of the monitoring device, the mobile device, and/or thewearable device is in the “off” (or sleep) mode. In another aspectcertain security credentials (e.g., username and/or password, smartcard, pin, or the like) may be needed to access when at least one of themonitoring device(s), the mobile device, and/or the wearable device(s)of the system 305 are in an “off” mode.

In another aspect, the sporting apparatus comprises a golf club, and thesystem comprises a plurality of golf clubs, with at least one of thegolf clubs of the plurality of golf clubs comprising the monitoringdevice. In another aspect, all of the golf clubs comprising theplurality of golf clubs comprise one or more monitoring devices.

In another aspect the monitoring device(s), mobile device, and/orwearable device(s) comprise a port configured to receive a wiredconnection in order to upload stored data corresponding to a useroperating the sporting apparatus, enabling a user to upload such datafrom the monitoring device, the mobile device, and/or the wearabledevice(s) to a computing device for one or more of storage, processing,transmitting, and display.

In the various disclosures discussed herein, the first wearable device380 and/or the second wearable device 301 can include a haptic device.As examples, the haptic device can be a vibrator device or apiezo-electric device. The haptic device can produce a vibration orother tactile signal that is capable of being sensed by the user. Sincethe haptic device can be positioned in an attachment device such as awristband, an ear piece, an ankle band, etc., it may be positionedproximate the user's wrist, ear, ankle, respectively, or proximate anyother part of the body that can sense haptic sensory feedback. As aresult, only minimal vibration is needed to be adequately sensed by auser. Advantageously, in some examples, the vibration can be non-audibleto nearby persons and only detectable by the user. As another advantage,by providing the haptic device proximate to the user's wrist, ear, orankle, it is unlikely that a user would miss a notification because ofnot sensing the vibration.

Other examples may include a range of minimal to substantial (evenpossibly audible) vibration to correspond to a preferred or deviationfrom a preferred movement.

In an aspect of the disclosure, the haptic device may be utilized toprovide immediate feedback to a user regarding use of a sportingapparatus with which the user is associated. In this aspect, the firstwearable device 380 and/or the second wearable device 301 may beconfigured to provide haptic sensory feedback corresponding to the useroperating the sporting apparatus 300 in substantial conformance with,and/or in substantial deviation from, a predetermined path of motion.For example, in the context of a golf swing, the system 305 may beconfigured to recognize when a golfer's swing is “on plane,” a termgenerally understood to correlate with a fluid swing following arecommended swing path for optimal ball striking. This “on plane” swingpath is sometimes approximated with reference to a Hoola Hoop® orsimilar structure positioned at an appropriate angle relative to theuser at address and the target. The system 305 may be configured toprovide appropriate haptic feedback in response to a swing being “onplane,” for example, signaling the first wearable device 380 to provideone short vibration for a swing that is “on plane,” two short vibrationsfor a swing that is “over the plane,” and three short vibrations for aswing that is “under the plane.” Other signals for other motions maylikewise be used, for example, a vibration pattern, audible signal,and/or visual signal may be used to signal whether or not a golfer's (oruser of other sporting apparatus) swing is within an acceptable range ofazimuth, for example of zero degrees, within an acceptable attack angle,etc.

In yet another aspect, the system may comprise an alert or other warningsystem to inform a user that the system is or is not disabled or in“off” or sleep mode when the user approaches a location at which it maybe desirable to either able or disable the system. For example, in thecase of a user who is a golfer, and whose golf clubs are configured withone or more monitoring devices, the user may wish to be reminded todisable such devices prior to commencing a golf round at an event wheresuch devices are not permitted to be used. According to the presentdisclosure, one or more devices associated with the system may beconfigured to alert the golfer in that event, for example, employing ahaptic device to vibrate as a reminder to the golfer to disable thesystem before commencing the golf round. This may be achieved, forexample, via a location module associated with, for example, thewearable device, the mobile device, and/or the monitoring device,configured to identify when the user, the user's sporting apparatus,and/or one or more of the aforementioned devices are located at or neara location associated with restrictions for use of such devices, such asa golf course.

In another aspect of the disclosure, the first wearable device 380and/or the second wearable device 301 can include a heart rate monitor.For example, the first wearable device 380 may be a watch, and mayinclude a heart rate monitor as one of electronic components 388. Insuch an example, the heart rate of the user may be used to generatecalorie tracking information. In addition, the heart rate may bepresented to the user on the display of the mobile device 370 or on thedisplay 386 of the first wearable device 380 and/or on a display of thesecond wearable device 399. The heart rate may indicate to the user thatthey need to relax or calm down, or may indicate that the user shouldincrease heart rate to activate blood flow, for example by deepbreathing. In another example, when the heart rate of the user reaches apredetermined threshold level, either high or low, at least one of themobile device 370, the first wearable device 380, and/or the secondwearable device 301 may provide a notification to the user. Thenotification may include a sound, such as a soothing song to lower theheart rate of the user, or another sound that indicates to the user thatthe user should take a moment to relax, or take a moment to get bloodflowing by moving around, doing stretches, or the like. As discussedherein, sensed data, user preferences, and/or determined relationshipsof information (e.g., correlated data), among other things may be usedin determining the actions by a device, which may include display ofinformation associated with performance. In an example, a relationshipbetween heart rate and swing path of a player may be determined to beindicative of a flight path and/or ball travel distance from a tee. Thisrelationship can be displayed graphically and/or numerically. The typeof music that corresponds with appropriately changing a user's heartrate (e.g., based on a user preference) may be selected based on thedetermined heart rate for a desired performance.

In yet another aspect, the first wearable device 380 and/or the secondwearable device 301 can include a microphone and/or a speaker, inaddition to a microphone and/or speaker in the mobile device 370. Duringuse of the system 305 the microphones and speakers within the mobiledevice 370 and the first and second wearable devices 380 and 301,respectively, may be utilized to provide notifications, feedback, voiceinput, etc. to allow communication between the devices and the user. Forexample, the speakers may be used to provide the user feedback aboutheart rate, or other vital stats as described above. In yet anotherexample, the speakers may be used to audibly indicate to the userdistances on the course, such as distance to the green or distance to ahazard. The user may also be able to communicate through a microphonewith the system 305 in order to request information and/or changesettings, for example.

In another aspect of the disclosure, the system 305 may comprise a firstsporting apparatus 300 comprising a first monitoring device 325, 335,340, and/or 350, configured to transmit first data, for example 351,corresponding to a user operating the first sporting apparatus 300 toimpact a second sporting apparatus, 390, in this example a golf ball. Inthis aspect, the mobile device 370 may be configured to receive thefirst data 351 transmitted by the first monitoring device, for example350, and to process the first data 351 for further transmission 352 asfirst displayable information 353. The first displayable information maycomprise, for example, at least one of velocity, acceleration,deceleration, attack angle, and swing path of the first sportingapparatus 300.

In this aspect, the system 350 may also comprise a first wearable device380 associated with the user configured to receive the first data forfurther transmission from the mobile device 352 and to display the firstdisplayable information 353. In this aspect, the second sportingapparatus 390 may comprise a second monitoring device 392 configured totransmit second data, 394, 396, and/or 398 corresponding to being struckby the first sporting apparatus 300. In this aspect, the secondmonitoring device 392 may be configured to transmit the second data,394, 396, and/or 398 to at least one of the first monitoring device,350, the mobile device, 370, and the wearable device, 380, respectively.The system may be further configured to process the second data fordisplay on the first wearable device 380 as second displayableinformation. The second data may comprise, for example, after the secondsporting apparatus 390 is struck by the first sporting apparatus 300, atleast one of velocity, acceleration, deceleration, compression, spinrate, launch angle, azimuth, spin direction, location, altitude, flightdistance, and flight path of the second sporting apparatus 390, any orall of which may be displayed as the second displayable information, forexample, on the first wearable device 380. In this aspect, particularlywhere location, flight path, altitude, and/or flight distance of thesecond sporting apparatus 390 is desired, it may be beneficial toinclude GPS or other tracking functionality within the second sportingapparatus 390. The first wearable device 380 may be further configuredto “toggle” between display of the first displayable information, forexample, that information specific to motion of the first sportingapparatus 300, and the second displayable information, for example, thatspecific to motion of the second sporting apparatus 390.

While the second monitoring device 392 is illustrated in FIG. 3 as beingembedded or contained within the second sporting apparatus 390, it willbe readily appreciated that the second monitoring device 392 and/orcomponents thereof may be positioned on or near the surface of thesecond sporting apparatus 390. The first sporting apparatus 300 may, forexample, be selected from the group comprising a golf club, a tennisracket, a squash racket, a racquetball racket, a baseball bat, asoftball bat, a cricket bat, a hockey stick, a sports shoe, a boxingglove, sports apparel, a virtual sporting apparatus such as a Wii stickor other controller, or a lacrosse stick, and the second sportingapparatus 390 may be selected from the group comprising a golf ball, atennis ball, a squash ball, a racquetball, a baseball, a softball, acricket ball, a hockey puck, a soccer ball, a football, a punching bag,a virtual ball, and a lacrosse ball.

The system illustrated in FIG. 3 comprises in one aspect, at least onemonitoring device, 325, 335, 340, and/or 350, a mobile device, 370, afirst wearable device 380, and a second wearable device 301. A mobiledevice 370 may be necessary in situations where the first wearabledevice 380 has insufficient computing capability, battery power, etc.,to perform the functions described herein. But in other aspects, thewearable device 380 may be provided with sufficient computingcapability, battery power, transceiver capability, etc., to functionwithout the need of a separate mobile device 370. Stated otherwise, themobile device 370 and first wearable device 380 may be configured as asingle wearable device comprising the functionality needed to performthe operations disclosed herein. Additionally or alternatively, thefirst wearable device 380 may be configured with the motion sensing andother features of the monitoring device(s) 340, 325, 350, 335. In thisaspect, all of the functionality of the mobile device 370, firstwearable device 380, and monitoring device(s) may be contained in asingle unit comprising the first wearable device 380. In such anexample, the first wearable device 380 may receive additional data 399from the second wearable device 301, and/or from any number of wearabledevices within the system 305.

In another aspect of the disclosure, the mobile device 370, firstwearable device 380, the second wearable device 301, and/or any otherdevices included in system 305 may be configured to transmit the data,such as data 352, 397, 399, 351, 355, 357, 353, 394, 398, and 396, overa network. For example, at least one of the devices may transmit thedata over a network to social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, or thelike. In addition, each of the devices may transmit the data for realtime broadcast to any number of media outlets, such as to cableproviders, network providers, or the like. In such examples, the datatransmitted by the devices may be received and viewed by friends,family, and/or the general public.

In one example, a golf tournament may be broadcast to viewers through aninternet provider or a cable provider, and the data received by theproviders from the devices in system 305 may be broadcast along with thegolf tournament broadcast to provide insight into the swings, location,and/or other information relating to the users of system 305 in the golftournament.

For another example, users of the system 305 may upload data before,during, or after utilizing the system 305 to social media for friends ofthe user to view, or may upload the data to a program that keeps arecord of all rounds of golf played, each shot hit, and the like so thatthe user can view the information at a later time. For example, thesystem 305 may utilize any number of the devices in system 305 to trackeach swing, location of the swing, shot distances, and any otherinformation gathered by the system 305, to allow the user to playback,review, and/or utilize the information to help improve their game. Assuch, the user may be capable of reviewing each shot through each roundof golf to determine various aspects of their game that lead to betterand worse play, so that the user can mimic and/or change their swing orapproach to certain situations in the game.

In yet another aspect of the disclosure, the system 305 may beconfigured to utilize all the data previously recorded by the system 305to recommend swing changes, club choices, and/or approaches to the game.For example, the user may consistently hit their 7 iron shorter than thetarget distance of 150 yards, so when the GPS within the mobile device370 determines that the user is 150 yards away from the green, themobile device 370 may communicate to the user a recommendation to use a6 iron. As such, the system 305 can learn, dynamically, the playingability and style of the user and use the data to recommend real timerecommendations to the user. Such a system 305 may also access real timeenvironmental data, such as wind direction and wind speed, based on theuser's location, and may further use such data to recommend how the usermay compensate for such environmental conditions, for example, by aiming20 yards left and clubbing “up” from a 7 iron to 6 iron in order tocompensate for a partial cross wind blowing left to right and toward theuser, for example.

The system 305 may further be configured to learn the optimal stance,ball alignment, and swing type of the user and recommend to the user,before, during, or after a swing, adjustments that the user can make tohit more consistent and/or better shots based on the prior data andlearning of the system 305. For example, in an implementation where thesecond wearable device 301 is a shoe, the monitoring device 392 maycommunicate with the second wearable device 301 to determine thedistance between the monitoring device 392 and the monitoring device 395in the second wearable device 301 for each different club. The system305 can track the distance data, such as data 396 and/or data 399, forgood and bad shots, and utilize the distance data to recommend to theuser a proper distance for each shot for each different club. Forexample, the system 305, through use of the speaker and/or display onthe mobile device 370, may recommend that the user step closer orfurther away from the second sporting apparatus 390 prior to each shot,and/or recommend that the user line up the second sporting apparatus 392more forward or more rearward with respect to the second wearable device395. Similar tracking and recommendations may occur for hand griplocation on the club, length of the backswing, length of the forwardswing, body rotation, and/or other information related to the swing ofthe user. Length of the swing refers to the distance the golf club head310 of the first sporting apparatus 300 travels from address to the topof the backswing for the backswing length, and from the top of thebackswing to striking the ball for the forward swing length. Accordingto some measures of golf performance, the ratio of the backswing lengthto the forward swing length should be greater than 1. As an example,tour professionals typically exhibit a forward swing length that is atleast about 10% less than backswing length, and potentially up to about30% less than backswing length. The system of the present disclosure candetermine the ratio of backswing to forward swing length and display thesame for each shot, and may further accumulate such data in order todetermine averages for the user.

In yet another aspect of the present disclosure, the system 305 mayprovide the data on the display of the mobile device 370 or on thedisplay 386 of the first wearable device 380, for example, concurrentlywith data relating to a prior swing by the user and/or a prior swing ofanother person, such as a professional golfer. For example, if the useris utilizing the system 305 at a course they have previously played, orthat a professional golfer has previously played, the system 305 maydisplay to the user, before, during, or after each swing, avisualization of the user or the professional golfer's previouslyrecorded swing. As such, the user can visually compare their swingattributes, swing result, and/or other information with their previousswings and/or the professional golfer's previous swings. In such anexample, the system 305 may query the user and/or automatically presentto the user, when the user is within a predetermined distance, such as10 feet, from where the user and/or the professional golfer took apreviously recorded swing, if the user desires to view and/or comparetheir swing to their previous swing or to the professional golfer'sprevious swing.

In another aspect, the system 305 illustrated in FIG. 3 may beconfigured with learning functionality permitting, for example, thefirst wearable device 380 to learn a user's swing (or other motion, suchas kick, punch, etc.) profile based, at least in part, on motion datatransmitted by the monitoring device(s) and/or the mobile device 370,and/or the first wearable device 380 and/or the second wearable device301, potentially enabling the user to rely on using only the wearabledevice(s) once the learning is complete. In this aspect, the system 305may comprise a sporting apparatus 300 comprising a monitoring device325, 335, 340, and/or 350 configured to transmit first data 355corresponding to motion of the sporting apparatus 300, and a firstwearable device 380 associated with, for example, attached to, worn by,or otherwise monitoring motion, position, or location of a user or abody part of a user of the sporting apparatus 300. The first wearabledevice 380 may be worn by the user, but may also comprise or beassociated with devices that remotely monitor motion, position, orlocation of a user for display on the wearable device 380. The wearabledevice may be configured to receive the first data 355 and to acquiresecond data corresponding to motion of the user. This first data 355 maybe data captured by one or more of the monitoring devices 325, 335, 340,and/or 350, corresponding to the user taking one or more swings of thesporting apparatus 300. This first data 355 may thus comprise aggregateddata that may be representative of an average swing by the user of thesporting apparatus 300. Because the monitoring device capturing andtransmitting such data is associated with the sporting apparatus 300itself, it may represent a more accurate depiction of user's swingprofile than a monitoring device more remote from the point of impact,such as that contained in the first wearable device 380. In the case ofthe sporting apparatus 300 comprising a golf club, one of the bestlocations for positioning a monitoring device is within or proximate thegolf club head, as for example, monitoring device 340, as such locationis more proximate the point of impact. Other locations, of course arepossible, such as the lower shaft, as with monitoring device 325, midshaft, as with monitoring device 350, and within the grip region, aswith monitoring device 335.

The second data corresponding to motion of the user may be acquired, forexample, by configuring the first wearable device 380 with a monitoringdevice which may comprise, for example, one, more, or all of: athree-axis accelerometer capable of producing and transmitting linearacceleration data, a three-axis gyroscope capable of producing andtransmitting angular velocity data, a first microprocessor capable ofreceiving data from the accelerometer and the gyroscope and processingthe data, a first computer memory wherein the microprocessor stores theprocessed data. An optional radio transmitter for transmitting theprocessed data from the first computer memory, while not needed in thisaspect, may nonetheless be provided. MEMS (microelectromechanicalsystems) technology may be used for the accelerometer and the gyroscope.The monitoring device in the first wearable device 380 may, for example,comprise one of the electronic components 388 within the band 382, ormay comprise the electronic component 389 within the portable electronicdevice 384, and may be powered by a battery or other suitable powersource.

The first wearable device 380, second wearable device 301, mobile device370, and/or the sporting apparatus 300 itself may be further configuredwith a learning module, which may comprise, for example, the electroniccomponents 388 and/or 389, and may be configured to correlate and/orcalibrate the first data with the second data corresponding to themotion of the user, and generate third data comprising an approximationof motion of the sporting apparatus 300 based at least in part on motionof the user. For example, a user may take four swings with a seven iron,and may be advised to progressively increase swing speed with eachswing, generating club head speeds of 43, 48, 53, and 56 miles per hour,which may be recorded by the system, for example, by the monitoringdevice 350 attached to the 7-iron. The monitoring device associated withthe first wearable device 380, however, may, based on the same fourswings of the 7-iron, record swing speeds of only 31, 37, 43, and 50miles per hour, respectively, as the user's wrist, to which the firstwearable device 380 and hence monitoring device associated therewith isattached, generally moves at a slower velocity at the point of impactthan does the club head. The learning module may be configured tocorrelate these multiple data points to arrive at a predictiverelationship of the user's wrist swing speed to club head speed, asillustrated schematically in FIG. 4. Such data may be extrapolated aboveand below the range of the four representative user swing speeds, and atall points there between, to arrive at predictive club head speeds forany user (for example wrist or hand) swing speed. In addition, in oneaspect, where the system 305 comprises more than one wearable device,each wearable device may be used to create additional predictiverelationships dependent on the location of each wearable device on theuser. For example, if a second wearable device is a shirt, the learningmodule may be configured to correlate multiple additional data pointsrelated to the user's torso speed, in addition to the data points fromthe first wearable device 380, to arrive at a predictive relationship ofclub head speed.

It should here be noted that a user's swing speed as measured, forexample, at the user's wrist or hand by a first wearable device 380,will, for the same swing speed of the user, generally produce fasterclub head speeds as the length of the club increases. This isexemplified schematically in FIG. 4, illustrating that at any givenswing speed of the user's wrist, the differential between that speed andthe speed of the club head will be greater, for example, for a driverclub than for a shorter club such as a 7-iron. In this aspect, it may bedesirable to configure, as part of the method disclosed herein, everyclub of the user with an RFID chip or tag that can communicate whichclub the golfer is using to the learning module, the wearable device,the mobile device, and/or the monitoring device associated with thesporting apparatus, such that the appropriate correlation between theuser's swing (for example wrist) speed and the club head speed for thespecific club being used may be achieved. The learning module (notshown) may be distributed and based, for example, within one or moredevices, such as the wearable device 380, the mobile device 370, and/orthe monitoring device 325. The learning module (not shown) may be astand-alone device communicatively connected with other devices, such asthe wearable device 380, the mobile device 370, and/or the monitoringdevice 325.

It should be understood that while the user's wrist (or hand) speed andclub head speed have been discussed in connection with one of theaspects of the disclosure, that the correlative aspects enabling awearable device or a mobile device associated with a wearable device to“learn” may be applied to any aspect of the sporting apparatus' motionrelative to the user's motion in order to generate an approximation ofthe sporting apparatus' motion based on the user's motion. As anotherexample, the system may acquire first swing data from a monitoringdevice associated with a sporting apparatus, and second swing dataassociated with motion of the user, for example, as determined by atleast one wearable device being worn by the user. The system maycorrelate the first and second swing data to produce third swing datawhich may be displayed on the wearable device. In this example, theswing data may comprise data illustrative of a golfer's swing, such asswing arc, swing plane, attack angle, etc.

Such an example is illustrated in FIG. 5. In this example, a systemgenerally 505 may comprise a sporting apparatus 500 such as a golf clubcomprising a monitoring device 540, positioned, for example, in the head510 of the golf club. As previously described, the monitoring device 540may communicate with one or more of a mobile device (not shown) and/orwearable device(s), generally 580. As illustrated, the monitoring device540 may generate first swing data, generally 520, which may comprise,for example, a backswing swing path 525, a downswing swing path 530, anda follow through swing path 535. Similarly, the wearable device 580,which may be associated with a user, may be used to generate secondswing data, illustrated in dashed lines, generally 520A, which maycomprise, for example, a backswing swing path 525A, a downswing path530A, and a follow through swing path 535A, all of which may depict theswing path of the wearable device and thus the user's wrist or hand (orother body part) to which the wearable device is secured.

As further illustrated, both the first swing data 520 and the secondswing data 520A may comprise multiple data points, illustrated as stars550, 551, 552, 553, 554, 555, and 550A, 551A, 552A, 553A, 554A, 555A,respectively, which data may be captured at predetermined positions ofthe swing. Such data points may comprise motion specific data, includingone or more of instantaneous velocity, instantaneous spatial position,instantaneous acceleration, instantaneous attack angle, etc. In thisexample, data points 550, 550A comprise data captured at approximatelythe midpoint of the backswing; data points 551, 551A comprise datacaptured at approximately the top (or terminal point) of the swing; datapoints 552, 552A comprise data captured at approximately the midpoint ofthe downswing; data points 553, 553A comprise data captured atapproximately the point of impact of the sporting apparatus 500 with asports object, such as a golf ball; data points 554, 554A comprise datacaptured at approximately the midpoint of the follow through; and datapoints 555, 555A comprise data captured at approximately the completionof the swing for the sporting apparatus 500 and the wearable device 580,respectively. Other locations during the swing for data capture, andadditional or fewer data captures are of course possible.

Once the first and second data is captured, it may be processed, forexample, by averaging similar data achieved during multiple swings. Thefirst and second data may also be correlated and/or calibrated in orderto provide predictive values of swing data for the sporting apparatus500, for example, the golf club head 510, without use of the monitoringdevice 540, rather, relying on only swing data from the wearable device580.

The “learning” achieved by the learning module used to correlate themotion of the sporting apparatus with the motion of the user, asrepresented by a wearable device worn by the user, should ideally beaccomplished for each individual user. Using golf as an example, eachuser may have a tendency to grip the club at a different location, gripdifferent clubs at different locations, or may have other idiosyncrasiesaffecting how the individual's hand or wrist speed or other motioncorrelates to club head speed or other motion.

It should also be noted that the “learning” achieved by the learningmodule may be done without use of a human user. For example, as isknown, golf club manufacturers typically rely on robot testing of golfequipment. Such robots may be configured with sensors and monitors tocorrelate an ideal user's wrist or hand speed (or other motion) to aclub head speed (or other motion) for any range of wrist speeds,motions, and club lengths. Such acquired data may be imported into anRFID chip or other data storage device placed, for example, in the gripof each club, enabling the club to communicate, for example, with awearable device associated with the user of the club that a particularclub is being used and that the user's wrist speed or other motion data(for example as detected by the wearable device) will translate into apredetermined club head speed or other motion data for the golf club.

FIG. 6 and the following discussion are intended to provide a briefgeneral description of a suitable computing system in which the methodsand systems disclosed herein and/or portions thereof may be implemented.Although not required, the methods and systems disclosed herein aredescribed in the general context of computer-executable instructions,such as program modules, being executed by a computing system.Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures and the like that perform particular tasksor implement particular abstract data types. It should be appreciatedthe methods and systems disclosed herein or portions thereof may bepracticed with computer system configurations, including a clientworkstation, server, hand-held device, multi-processor system,microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronic, network PC,minicomputer, mainframe computer, and the like. The methods and systemsmay also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasksare performed by remote processing devices that are linked through acommunications network. In a distributed computing environment, programmodules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram representing a general purpose computer systemin which aspects of the methods and systems disclosed herein or portionsthereof may be incorporated. The monitoring devices (e.g., themonitoring devices 325, 330, 340, 350 etc.), the mobile device 370, thefirst wearable device 380, and/or sporting apparatus 390, among otherdevices may include one or more of the components of computing device1820 as described herein. As shown, the exemplary general purposecomputing system includes a computer 1820 or the like, including aprocessing unit 1821, a system memory 1822, and a system bus 1823 thatcouples various system components including the system memory to theprocessing unit 1821. The system bus 1823 may be any of several types ofbus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. Thesystem memory includes read-only memory (ROM) 1824 and random accessmemory (RAM) 1825. A basic input/output system 1826 (BIOS), containingthe basic routines that help to transfer information between elementswithin the computer 1820, such as during start-up, is stored in ROM1824.

The computer 1820 may further include a hard disk drive 1827 for readingfrom and writing to a hard disk (not shown), a magnetic disk drive 1828for reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk 1829, and anoptical disk drive 1830 for reading from or writing to a removableoptical disk 1831 such as a CD-ROM or other optical media. The hard diskdrive 1827, magnetic disk drive 1828, and optical disk drive 1830 areconnected to the system bus 1823 by a hard disk drive interface 1832, amagnetic disk drive interface 1833, and an optical drive interface 1834,respectively. The drives and their associated computer-readable mediaprovide non-volatile storage of computer readable instructions, datastructures, program modules and other data for the computer 1820. Asdescribed herein, computer-readable media is an article of manufactureand thus not a transient signal.

Although the exemplary environment described herein employs a hard disk,a removable magnetic disk 1829, and a removable optical disk 1831, itshould be appreciated that other types of computer readable media whichcan store data that is accessible by a computer may also be used in theexemplary operating environment. Such other types of media include, butare not limited to, a magnetic cassette, a flash memory card, a digitalvideo or versatile disk, a Bernoulli cartridge, a random access memory(RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), and the like.

A number of program modules may be stored on the hard disk, magneticdisk 1829, optical disk 1831, ROM 1824 or RAM 1825, including anoperating system 1835, one or more application programs 1836, otherprogram modules 1837 and program data 1838. A user may enter commandsand information into the computer 1820 through input devices such as akeyboard 1840 and pointing device 1842. Other input devices (not shown)may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite disk, scanner,or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to theprocessing unit 1821 through a serial port interface 1846 that iscoupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interfaces,such as a parallel port, game port, or universal serial bus (USB). Amonitor 1847 or other type of display device is also connected to thesystem bus 1823 via an interface, such as a video adapter 1848. Inaddition to the monitor 1847, a computer may include other peripheraloutput devices (not shown), such as speakers and printers. Monitor 1847or like display (e.g., display 386) may display data associated with theoperation of a sporting apparatus and/or output based on data associatedwith the operation of a sporting apparatus. Graphical and/or numericaldata from multiple sporting apparatuses (e.g., a first apparatus and asecond apparatus, which was impacted by the first apparatus) may beshown on monitor 1847. The exemplary system of FIG. 6 also includes ahost adapter 1855, a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) bus 1856,and an external storage device 1862 connected to the SCSI bus 1856.

The computer 1820 may operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer1849 (e.g., the monitoring device 230). The remote computer 1849 may bea personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device orother common network node, and may include many or all of the elementsdescribed above relative to the computer 1820, although only a memorystorage device 1850 has been illustrated in FIG. 6. The logicalconnections depicted in FIG. 6 include a local area network (LAN) 1851and a wide area network (WAN) 1852. Such networking environments arecommonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets,and the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 1820 isconnected to the LAN 1851 through a network interface or adapter 1853.When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 1820 may includea modem 1854 or other means for establishing communications over thewide area network 1852, such as the Internet. The modem 1854, which maybe internal or external, is connected to the system bus 1823 via theserial port interface 1846. In a networked environment, program modulesdepicted relative to the computer 1820, or portions thereof, may bestored in the remote memory storage device. It will be appreciated thatthe network connections shown are exemplary and other means ofestablishing a communications link between the computers may be used.

Computer 1820 may include a variety of computer readable storage media.Computer readable storage media can be any available media that can beaccessed by computer 1820 and includes both volatile and nonvolatilemedia, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and notlimitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage mediaand communication media. Computer storage media include both volatileand nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in anymethod or technology for storage of information such as computerreadable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data.Computer storage media include, but are not limited to, RAM, ROM,EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,or any other medium which can be used to store the desired informationand which can be accessed by computer 1820. Combinations of any of theabove should also be included within the scope of computer readablemedia that may be used to store source code for implementing the methodsand systems described herein. Any combination of the features orelements disclosed herein may be used in one or more examples.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart diagram illustrating a method for use by systemsand apparatus of the present disclosure. The approach and techniqueindicated by flowchart 700 are sufficient to describe at least oneimplementation of the present disclosure, however, other implementationsof the disclosure may utilize approaches and techniques different fromthose shown in flowchart 700. Furthermore, while flowchart 700 isdescribed with respect to FIG. 3, the disclosed concepts are notintended to be limited by specific features shown and described withrespect to FIG. 3. Furthermore, with respect to the method illustratedin FIG. 7, it is noted that certain details and features have been leftout of flowchart 700 in order not to obscure the discussion of disclosedfeatures in the present application.

Flowchart 700 (at operation 710) includes acquiring first dataindicative of motion of a sporting apparatus. For example, the data 351,353, 355, and/or 357 is acquired by the sporting apparatus 300 using atleast one of the monitoring devices 325, 335, 340, and 350. The data351, 353, 355, and/or 357 may then be transmitted to at least one of thefirst wearable device 380 and the mobile device 370. The mobile device370 may then transmit the data 351, 353, 355, and/or 357 as transmitteddata 352 to the first wearable device 380, for example.

Flowchart 700 (at operation 720) includes acquiring second dataindicative of motion of a user of the sporting apparatus. For example,the data 397 captured by the electrical components 388 and/or 389 of thefirst wearable device 380 is acquired by the portable electronic device384, and the data 399 captured by the monitoring device 395 is alsoacquired by the mobile device 370 and/or the first wearable device 380.The data 397 captured by the electrical components 388 and/or 389,and/or the data 399 captured by the monitoring device 395 may then betransmitted to the mobile device 370 and/or stored on the first wearabledevice 380. In some implementations, the first wearable device 380 mayreceive the data 351, 353, 355, and/or 357 from the sporting apparatus300 as well as the data 399 from the second wearable device 301 andstore the data 351, 353, 399, 355, and/or 357 in addition to the data397 captured by the electrical components 388 and/or 390. However, inother implementations, the mobile device 370 may receive and store boththe data 351, 353, 355, 399, and/or 357 in addition to the data 397captured by the electrical components 388 and/or 389. The data 351, 353,355, and/or 357 in addition to the data 397 captured by the electricalcomponents 388 and/or 389 may be shared between the mobile device 370,the first wearable device 380, and the second wearable device 301 usingRFID, Bluetooth, ZigBee, or any suitable method as known in the art.

As discussed above, in some aspects of the present disclosure there maybe any number of wearable devices. In such an implementation, theacquiring of the second data may include acquiring data from the firstwearable device 380 and the second wearable device 301, in addition toother wearable devices. For example, in addition to the first wearabledevice 380 and the second wearable device 301, which may be a watch anda glove, respectively, the user may also have at least one of a hat, ashirt, and shoes each including electrical components, such asmonitoring devices, capable of capturing data as well as transmittingdata to, and receiving data from the mobile device 370 and any of theother wearable devices, including first wearable device 380. It shouldhere be noted that although operation 710 is illustrated in FIG. 7 aspreceding operation 720, that it is possible and within the scope of thepresent disclosure for operation 720 to precede operation 710 and/or foroperations 710 and 720 to occur simultaneously. Flowchart 700 (atoperation 730) includes correlating the first data to the second data toproduce third data indicative of motion of the sporting apparatus basedat least in part, and in one aspect based solely, on the motion of theuser. For example, mobile device 370 and/or first wearable device 380may produce third data indicative of the motion of the sportingapparatus 300 based on data 352, 397, 399, 353, 351, 355, and/or 357,such as the motion of the user's wrist as captured by the wearabledevice 380 and/or motion of the user's hand as captured by the wearabledevice 301. Correlating the first data to the second data may compriseprocessing the first and second data via a learning module to producethe third data. The third data may comprise predictive data based onlyon motion of the user. The motion of the user may be one or more ofpredicted motion of the user, for example, based on motion of thesporting apparatus, stored data comprising a plurality of motions of theuser, and real time data comprising motion of the user.

Flowchart 700 (at operation 740) includes displaying the third data asdisplayable data on a display associated with at least one of a wearabledevice and a mobile device. For example, the displayable data 353 isdisplayed on a display 386 and/or the display associated with mobiledevice 370.

In describing preferred examples of the subject matter of the presentdisclosure, as illustrated in the Figures, specific terminology isemployed for the sake of clarity. The claimed subject matter, however,is not intended to be limited to the specific terminology so selected,and it is to be understood that each specific element includes alltechnical equivalents that operate in a similar manner to accomplish asimilar purpose. The use of the term “correlate” is exemplary and otherways of determining a relationship based on data are contemplatedherein. It is contemplated herein that the concepts discussed herein areapplicable to apparatuses other than sporting apparatuses.

This written description uses examples to disclose the invention andalso to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention,including making and using any devices or systems and performing anyincorporated methods. The patentable scope of the invention is definedby the claims, and may include other examples that occur to thoseskilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within thescope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differfrom the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalentstructural elements with insubstantial differences from the literallanguages of the claims.

We claim:
 1. A sporting apparatus comprising: a radio transmitter; and amonitoring device communicatively connected with the radio transmitter,wherein the monitoring device comprises: a processor; and a memorycoupled with the processor, the memory comprising executableinstructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor toeffectuate operations comprising: receiving first data; and receivinginstructions to enter into a sleep mode based on a criteria, the sleepmode preventing one or more devices from displaying the first data whilethe monitoring device or a wearable device still receives or transmitsthe first data, and the criteria comprises a date and time.
 2. Thesporting apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more devices comprisesat least one of the wearable device, a mobile device, or the monitoringdevice.
 3. The sporting apparatus of claim 1, wherein the criteriacomprises a location of the monitoring device.
 4. The sporting apparatusof claim 1, wherein the criteria comprises a threshold number ofmonitoring devices that are in proximity of the sporting apparatus. 5.The sporting apparatus of claim 1, the operations further comprising:preventing wireless transmission of the first data based on theinstructions to enter into the sleep mode.
 6. The sporting apparatus ofclaim 1, the operations further comprising: responsive to the receivedinstructions to enter into the sleep mode, transmitting instructions tothe one or more devices to not display output based on the first data.7. The sporting apparatus of claim 1, the operations further comprising:responsive to the received instructions to enter into the off mode,transmitting instructions to the one or more devices to not transmitoutput based on the first data.
 8. The sporting apparatus of claim 1,wherein the sporting apparatus is selected from a group comprising agolf club, a tennis racket, a squash racket, a racquetball racket, abaseball bat, a softball bat, a cricket bat, a hockey stick, a sportsshoe, a ball, a puck, a boxing glove, sports apparel, or a lacrossestick.
 9. The sporting apparatus of claim 1, wherein the monitoringdevice comprises a port configured to receive a wired connection inorder to upload the first data in response to operation of the sportingapparatus from the monitoring device to a computing device for one ormore of storage, processing, transmitting, and display.
 10. A devicecomprising: a processor; and a memory coupled with the processor, thememory comprising executable instructions that when executed by theprocessor cause the processor to effectuate operations comprising:transmitting instructions to a monitoring device of a sporting apparatusto enter into a sleep mode based on a criteria, the sleep modepreventing one or more devices from displaying a first data while themonitoring device or a wearable device still receives or transmits thefirst data, and the criteria comprises a date and time.
 11. The deviceof claim 10, wherein the criteria further comprises a location of use ofthe sporting apparatus.
 12. The device of claim 10, wherein the criteriafurther comprises a location of the device.
 13. The device of claim 10,the operations further comprising receiving haptic sensory feedback as areminder of the sleep mode commencing.
 14. A system comprising: asporting apparatus comprising a monitoring device; and mobile devicecommunicatively connected with the monitoring device, the mobile devicecomprising: a processor; and a memory coupled with the processor, thememory comprising executable instructions that when executed by theprocessor cause the processor to effectuate operations comprising:transmitting instructions to the monitoring device to enter into a sleepmode based on a criteria, the sleep mode preventing one or more devicesfrom displaying a first data while the monitoring device or a wearabledevice still receives or transmits the first data, and the criteriacomprises a date and time.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein thecriteria further comprises a location of use of the sporting apparatus.16. The system of claim 14, wherein the criteria further comprises alocation of the mobile device.
 17. The system of claim 14, wherein thesporting apparatus is selected from a group comprising a golf club, atennis racket, a squash racket, a racquetball racket, a baseball bat, asoftball bat, a cricket bat, a hockey stick, a sports shoe, a ball, apuck, a boxing glove, sports apparel, or a lacrosse stick.
 18. Thesystem of claim 14, the operations further comprising: receiving hapticsensory feedback as a reminder of the sleep mode commencing.
 19. Thesystem of claim 14, the operations further comprising: receiving anindication that the monitoring device is placed in the sleep mode or anactive mode while in a location.
 20. The system of claim 14, wherein thewearable device is article of clothing.